The ethanol industry is firing back over headlined reports of a Stanford University computer model prediction that indicates “nearly 200 more people would die yearly from respiratory problems if all vehicles in the United States ran on a mostly ethanol fuel blend by 2020.”
Officials with the American Coalition for Ethanol stated that, “Air quality has improved in every city, county, and state that has switched from straight gasoline use to ethanol blended fuel. Those are real world results, not predictions.”
“Ethanol’s record as a clean air fuel is unmatched. The track record for the predictive models issued by ethanol opponents – especially with respect to California predictions – has been less than stellar,” ACE’s statement continues.
The Stanford study, which was published in Wednesday’s online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology, is based on all cars using a blend of 85 percent ethanol, a scenario that could not happen within the foreseeable future, if ever. First, it would require that all cars on the road be flex-fuel vehicles, capable of using E85. Only about five million are currently on the road and auto makers have no plans to make all future vehicles flex-fuel. Secondly, there is no foreseeable way that the ethanol industry, even with cellulosic, could supply as much ethanol as the study assumes.
“There is a great satisfaction in gen-erating your own electricity and do-ing so in a way that reduces global warming emissions and strengthens the country’s energy security,” says AWEA executive director Randall Swisher. “The bill proposed by senators Salazar and Smith empowers consumers and is good energy policy.”
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BioTown USA was launched in 2005 and is the first community in the nation working to meet all of its energy needs through the use of biorenewable resources.
“We’re not opposed to refiners converting a portion of their capacity into renewable capacity,” Joe Jobe, CEO of the National Biodiesel Board, said during a conference call with reporters Monday. “But we believe it’s bad public policy for taxpayers who are paying as much as $3 for a gallon of gasoline to have their taxes pay another dollar for this.”
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American Honda was honored with the Green Fleet Award for “leadership and consistency in manufacturing vehicles that provide fleets and customers with the greenest choices around.” Pictured, Dan Bonawitz, Vice President of Corporate Planning and Logistics for American Honda, accepted this award from actor Larry Hagman and AFVi Executive Director Annalloyd Thomason.
According to a company release, the grand opening event for POET Biorefining in Corning, Iowa will be held on May 4. 
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva apparently put their heads together and worked out a compromise on ethanol at this week’s first-ever South American Energy Summit.
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